Morning Song – Take This Job And Shove It

September 5, 2016

Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job And Shove It” is a pretty good indicator of how working-class power has eroded in the 39 years since it was the #1 song in the country.

After all, the only way the average working man or woman can even entertain that thought is if there’s another employer out there who needs help just as badly…or worse. Most folks can’t risk quitting a job unless 1) their current job pays enough to enable them to have saved up a bit of a cushion, and 2) there’s a reasonable certainty of an equal-or -better-paying job right around the corner.

In the wake of the Great Recession, that hasn’t been the case for most American workers for a long time. But hope may be just around the corner.

As the baby boomers retire in ever-increasing numbers, multiple analysts predictsystemic labor shortages will emerge across the United States by 2020…and many continue for decades after that. Maybe it isn’t too much to hope that some enterprising rapper (Nikki? Kanye?) will have a hit with a remix of “Take This Job And Shove It”.